Andy600

It's amazingly sharp but TBH I don't see any of the nice aesthetics that you get with a 2x anamorphic. The lens flare looks a bit artificial, a bit 'Video Copilot-ish' to my eyes.

I'm hoping they develop a 2x model now that we can record 4:3 raw video on the Canons.

That said, it's still fantastic that SLR Magic are moving into anamorphics. I've got faith in them!

So it can work on APS-C cameras (certainly not full frame) but these adapters work by mounting the lens forward of the body on a kind of extension tube with glass to compensate (hmmm not good) and you can only use lenses with 2x extender mode engaged or it will vignette.

Pointless and costly if you ask me. Plus, how would you power the lens?

http://www.mtfservices.com/home.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=110&category_id=2

My apologies. I was wrong in my assumptions. I knew it was possible of M43 cameras but it's news to me that Canon DSLRs can accommodate these lenses. Expensive adapter though :o

What about eng b4 lens with 1:1 crop mode? What resolution in wide angle we can expect?

Good luck trying to adapt a B4 lens to the 50D. The only way you 'might' do it is to remove the mirror completely and even then I doubt it will work.

I know you're Mac based but have you tried raw2cdng? It can output 10-bit log Cinema DNG. It doesn't work properly on the 50D though because it needs black level higher than 2000. Not sure what the 5d3 is?

http://www.phreekz.de/wordpress/2013/06/magiclantern-raw2cdng-cinema-dng/

Raw2DNG has a lot of yet untapped potential. Depends what direction they take it in. What would be great is a quick way to demosaic the raw files with AMaZE, output to ProRes quickly.

 

Raw2DNG could have controls like Rawtherapee, even false colour suppression, but work from the raw files instead of the DNGs, cutting out a transcoding step, and give us ProRes to edit from.

 

It could also have an option to output flat LOG ProRes to make it more gradeable.

Yes, totally!

I proposed something yesterday that went a little beyond just a simple conversion app to circumvent certain issues and pull together the best algorithms for demosaicing, anti-aliasing and upscaling with real-time debayering preview: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=7214.0

It met with mixed reactions on the ML forum but I think the idea is solid although it is a lot of work to pull it together, especially as it would need to be open source due to licensing/royalty costs.

Maybe the proposed new Magic Lantern video standard will improve things and move the file format into the domain of 'must support' for the commercial devs at Adobe etc.

The moire and aliasing on the 50D is nowhere near as bad as it is on standard Canon DSLR video modes.

Seems no worse than on my 600d in general and definitely better than a rebel in 720p mode but when it happens it can be spectacular, especially with a tack sharp lens. TBH I've hardly had any bad shots though, just a woman with a busy shirt that looked like she was being eaten by a swarm of multicolor caterpillars due to the 'not-so-great' demosaic algorithm in Resolve. Sorted it with AMaZE in rawtherapee.

...The aliasing and moiré of the 50D can be atrocious, worse than what Canon APS C DSLR video shooters are already accustomed to, since the camera lacks a low pass filter, and there's no mushy codec to soften the pixels (unless one applies a blur filter in post).

The 50D does have an OLPF, 2 actually: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E50D/E50DA4.HTM
 

FPS override is not binning frames. Any jerky footage you see is down to not conforming the footage to the correct FPS in post and usually shots look choppy when the shooter hasn't remembered to set the shutter speed correctly.

BTW the 50D now has it's shutter timer controlled by the ADTG chip which is much better (only with Tragic Lantern 2.0 atm).

I agree though about Aliasing and moiré can be really nasty. I've been experimenting with Rawtherapee as it's got dbl & AMaZE demosaicing. It actually works quite well and looks better to me than ACR can deliver. AMaZE does go some way to cleaning-up affected shots up but obviously, once it's captured, it's pretty much gonna ruin the shot.

Nothing is perfect I guess.

The 50D is my stop-gap body until I get the 5D3 but even so, it blows the rebels away. Haven't touched my 600D since I got the 50D. The 50 makes that feel like a toy.

It would be good if the next edition of the EOSHD 50D raw shooting guide would also cover ETTR exposure. Once again, this a topic that is hard to grasp & draw the right practical conclusion from if you dive into the diverse discussion threads on the MagicLantern board.

The ETTR module is great but it is intended for stills. It dynamically alters ISO and shutter speed to push raw exposure as close to clipping without actually clipping to achieve the best SNR. You can use it for raw video of course but your shutter speed (and subsequently motion blur and cadence) will be affected. For raw video you should stick to using the the raw histogram with exp. warnings enabled.

Let me know PAVP and I'll raise it with the developers :)

To me the beauty of RAW on the 50D is the low entry price and high quality.  I think it's more of an indie film making tool than ENG type tool.  I wouldn't choose it over my other cameras for shooting a long event like a concert, tho you could.  I think this is more like a Black Magic Cinema Camera as opposed to an EX3.  I can't wait to get my CF cards so I can test this thing with my Anamorphic lens. 

 

Does anyone know if it's possible to add another Anamorphic stretch ratio like 1.75x?

The anamorphic de-squeeze ratios are hard coded in the display filter but I don't think it's too much hassle for a dev to add more if they are really needed.

I can understand their hesitation in supporting ML raw video at this stage but Magic Lantern (Unified V2.3) is rock solid and I would say essential to anyone filming on a Canon DSLR and who wants to get the best image possible. It's not just a hack, it's also an educational tool for anyone who plans to step up to more professional equipment (although a 5d3 shooting raw is right up there with the best IMO). If ever there was a 'no brainer' upgrade it's Magic Lantern!


If only Canon would give g3gg0 and A1ex deeper access to the hardware I'm sure it would benefit, not just Magic Lantern users but all Canon users. The auto ETTR function springs to mind. It would be a very useful addition to any Canon camera's stock FW.

For audio I like the idea of using a second camera (gopro for example) to record basic audio information. You could mount the gopro on your rig or onto the hotshoe to capture the same image. Then you just sync the two video streams in post, shouldn't be difficult. After that you can sync the audio stream of the gopro with your external HQ audio stream with pluraleyes for example.

 

I haven't tried this, don't remember who posted this idea, but it sounds fairly simple to me. And the extra GoPro footage can be a fun bonus I guess for behind the scenes kind of stuff :)

Great idea Julian. It would work equally as well with an iPhone etc although the GoPro footage would probably be better. Frame rates must match for it to work.

If you are an anamorphic shooter there is another important reason for using Tragic Lantern 2.0. It has display filters enabled with anamorphic de-squeeze letting you preview 1.25x, 1.33x, 1.5x, 1.66x and 2x anamorphic footage at it's intended aspect ratio. Very useful for framing. You can find it in the 'display' menu.

note: It can be a little buggy and you may get the odd Error 99 using the feature atm which requires a restart.

Riccardo - 50d's are comparatively cheap and batteries are $10. I would be more concerned at the cost of CF cards for recording a concert :huh:

I have a fairly useful workaround for the lack of audio. I use the delayed start (a feature only implemented in Tragic Lantern 2.0's raw module). I set it to 2 seconds (or 4 or 10) then hit record on my external recorder within those 2 seconds. Yes, it's not as useful as a reference track synced to the footage in-camera but at least I know I'm within 2 seconds (50 frames at 25p). For longer takes I'll still record H.264 on my 600d. I use a cheap as hell Kingston 600x 32gb card for H.264 and only choose raw for beauty shots. Even most pros will not consider shooting raw for interviews.

There is always the upcoming Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera to consider but my guess is that storage and battery life issues will be just the same. You can get a raw capable 50d plus batteries, a 64gb 1000x card and a cheap external audio recorder for the cost of a BMPCC even before factoring additional batteries and SD cards for the pocket cam. I still want one though :rolleyes:

It would be fantastic if all the components could be in one folder complete.

I start getting confused with adding and deleting the various bits that are needed to get it to work. 

 Starting to wonder if its just a waste of time right now for me.

There is a standard directory structure. If you get ML 2.3 installed FIRST then download one of the raw builds (links are in this thread) you can just overwrite everything with the newer files. Just make sure you follow the initial Magic Lantern installation instructions exactly and you won't go wrong.
 

Leica - That's because, unlike the GH2 hack there are quite a few developers in the Magic Lantern team.

There is comprehensive documentation about the installation and useage of Magic lantern on the ML site http://www.magiclantern.fm and even in the cameras themselves when installed.

The raw video features are still maturing and it is classed as bleeding edge code. It is not included in the unified release of Magic Lantern.

Anyone jumping straight in to shoot raw without first learning the basics of the ML OS will likely be in a world of pain.

Raw video, Auto-ETTR and a few other things are modules that have been added but are not yet seen as mature enough for general release.

I would advise you to install Magic Lantern 2.3 and familiarize yourself with it (and the camera itself if it's new to you) before looking at raw shooting.

Cantsin - No, nearly right but it's important that you Install Magic Lantern 2.3 unified build first exactly as described here: http://wiki.magiclantern.fm/install

Don't even think about the latest updates until it is installed and working. Then all you need to do is download Gregory's or Tragic Lantern 2.0 and overright the autoexec.bin and module files on the card. You can just copy the contents of the zipped builds to the card and overright.

Then it's just a case of loading up the modules to get raw video capability. There are a few changes to the Canon menus that you need to do such as disabling HTP etc and selecting Jpeg photo mode but once you have done that you can write it to a custom memory on the dial (C1 or C2). The modules also save their last state to config files.

 

Not getting 80MB/s yet, about 10MB/s short. Does it matter how the card is formatted?

I format in-camera. Did you enable the timer hack. You need to NOT be in Live view to do it.

Boot up the camera
hit the trash can button and go to the debug menu
scroll down to Dialog Timers and select 'Disable' (the screen will go blank)
Hit the Live View button

You can then record :)

Seems quite a few forks of the 50D branch. Hope you guys can bring it all together soon as it may confuse people and you will get Newbie Question Hell :)

There are afik 3 forks relevant to the 50d. The Unified build which doesn't have raw video. Gregory's builds which are unified + raw and Tragic Lantern 2.0 (by 1%) which is bleeding edge stuff (he did the nice H.264 ALL-I/Gop stuff on the 600d). I just compile TL2 if no one has already done it.

BTW your first shot will likely not get up to speed and stop recording after a few frames but you should hit 80+ MB/s on your next with a KB 1000x card. You'll also notice you have black bars on the side of the frame, this was done to squeeze a little more speed but you can get back to full-width view if you don't like it by pressing the INFO button a couple of times.

Another tip if you don't already know it :- File Browser in the 'debug' menu lets you preview and delete raw files ;)
 

EOSHD - The 1080p Vimeo footage I uploaded 2-3 weeks ago wasn't continuous because the hack was literally only 1 hr old and things have changed since then. I now have a 64gb Komputerbay card and with the shutter timer hack and global draw OFF plus photo mode set to Jpeg I get continuous 1080p/24p using Tragic Lantern 2.0 Try it yourself - https://bitbucket.org/andy600/tl50d/downloads :)

P.s. I'm hitting 81 - 83MB/s on the KB card

Tip: use C1 or C2 on the mode dial and turn off all the canon photo stuff (HTP, Auto Lighting Opt etc). You gain a bit more CPU/Memory

Ive been trying to install Magic Lantern on to my new 50D and i have had zero luck and wasted nearly a day trying. What a mess!  it makes hacking the GH2 seem simple . Help!

Have you followed this guide? http://wiki.magiclantern.fm/install

If you are having problems it might be because you don't have Canon FW version 1.09 installed or you are using a CF card bigger than 32gb???

@Cantsin - The 50d is still very much in development with Gregory adding the latest updates from the unified builds and 1% adding and enhancing new and missing features to his Tragic Lantern 2.0 branch of Magic lantern. It's still early days.

FYI If you want the extra writing speed you need to use Tragic Lantern from 1%. It has a function to disable shutter timers in the debug menu. You select this before going into Live view. You still get the same preview modes etc (no, you don't have to work without Live View) and it is quite stable. The only drawback is that you need to restart the camera to undo the timer hack but it's not a big issue (although it breaks the 'safe' rules that A1ex applies to the Unified Builds of Magic Lantern).

The raw module included with Tragic Lantern is also slightly different. It has additional functions to automatically disable Global Draw when you hit record (it re-enables when you stop recording) and also lets you delay the start of recording by 2,4 or 10 seconds.

re: Pink frames and magenta casts. This issue seems to be resolved.

As a reference I get 72MB/s write speed on a Transcend 16gb 600x CF card which is about 300 frames at 1080p/25p. The komputerbay 64gb 1000x card is continuous at 1080p although I haven't shot anything for more than 20-30 seconds so as to not waste valuable card space.

1% doesn't release constant builds of Tragic Lantern but I try to compile any new changes/updates and after testing on my own camera I upload them here: https://bitbucket.org/andy600/tl50d/downloads

The main 50d topics do need updating but I wanted to let things settle a bit before adding a set-up guide. I'll try and do it this weekend, time permitting.

That's quite severe but there is always the option not to shoot :D

I bet it would have looked worse in H.264 by a considerable margin.

Liking what I'm seeing in the other stills Julian :)

@rommex - I will test HDMI while recording but I need to get a HDMI cable. I see no reason why it can't do it. Raw video recording doesn't invoke the H.264 encoder. The H.264 encoder is what interecpts the LV feed and reduces the camera LCD to standard def (or OFF when HDMI is plugged in) when recording. I think, as raw uses a different method, the feed should still be active (the HDMI feed is 720p btw).

Anyway, I'll let you know when it's tested :)

re: 14bit to 12 or 10bit compression. The devs have tried hard for the past week but haven't succeeded (yet). See this post: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5601.msg40744;topicseen#msg40744